LEAGUE NOTES: ESPN'S GAMMONS IN FAVOR OF ENDING DH

MLB: ESPN's Peter Gammons, on the abolishment of the
DH: "[The MLBPA's] Don Fehr and Gene Orza have said that
this is not a negotiable item, they will never go for it.
They've said that if the owners try and implement it, that
they will then not allow interleague play next year, which
the players have to vote on. ... I think one of the problems
with baseball as entertainment going into the 21st century,
is ... not the length of games, it's the pace of games. And
the DH creates a much longer game, a lot more pitches in a
game. I think it makes pitchers much more defensive. And I
think really the time has come to move on and go back to the
original game that we had until 1973" (ESPN, 4/6).
NHL: In Toronto, William Houston continues Part 3 of
his "A Game In Crisis" report. Houston: "If hockey, as
entertainment, has regressed because of defensive tactics
and obstruction, Canadian hockey development has been
devastated. ... Canadian youth hockey ... tends to produce
poorly trained players who function best in an
obstructionist system. Today, Europe, which stressed
practice time and skills in its development system, supplies
the NHL with most of its top talent" (GLOBE & MAIL, 4/7).
ATP: On-court coaching debuted on the ATP Tour
yesterday at the Salem Open in Hong Kong. Coaches will be
able to enter the court and talk to players for two minutes
during the first changeover after each set (ATP).